DANVILLE -- A fire that was sparked Thursday afternoon at the historic Dan River Inc. Long Mill complex continued to burn late into the night.

Firefighters were expected to be on scene throughout the night, officials said.

Fire Chief David Eagle said investigators are now sure that the fire that demolished one building of the Long Mill complex and partially demolished another building started in a large pile of debris.

When firefighters responded to a call received at 4:22 p.m., the "entire pile of debris was already on fire and lapping up the building," Eagle said.

The fire in a pile of "dried out timber from construction, very small kindling type wood" about 100 feet long by 8 feet tall spread to adjacent buildings, he said.

"It overwhelmed us pretty quick."

Eagle said the building had no fire protection and sprinkler systems had been deactivated.

Emergency crews arrived half an hour later and three streets were evacuated as a precautionary measure, he said. Businesses on Riverside Drive closed due to smoke in the area.

Danville Emergency Services Director Doug Young said that the Salvation Army has been helping to provide relief to evacuated residents.

The fire chief expected crews to be working through the night.

Witnesses said that at about 4:15 p.m. only the huge pile of debris from ongoing demolition was on fire.

"We were coming across the (Union Street) Bridge from Burger King and saw the fire in the pile of trash," Nancy Beasley of Danville said.

She and her children watched the fire from the bridge, which was shut down to traffic but was lined with residents watching the blaze. Some said they saw the flames from as far away as Wal-Mart on Mount Cross Road.

By 5 p.m., two buildings were engulfed in flames and the Danville Fire Department was battling the blaze from at least five directions while trying to prevent nearby trees and homes from catching on fire.

Build-up from demolition that had been taking place for the past 6 to 8 months contributed to large pile-ups of kindling firewood, Eagle said.

Hundreds of Danville residents lined the Union Street Bridge to watch the blaze.

One of them was Florence Slaughter, who worked as a spinner in the now vacant and already partially demolished Long Mill during the 1970s.

"People just worked so hard. I don't know why, I just hate to see it come down," she said. "To tear it down is one thing, to see it collapse is another."

"It's like history coming down," said her daughter, Kelly Sims.

Slaughter was holding her 5-year-old grandson, Ryan, on the rail of the bridge as her family watched the building burn.

"That one? That big thing?" he said of the place his grandmother used to work.

"I've told him to try to remember this," she said.

Rose Shields, president of the Danville Historical Society, also was watching the flames.

"It's a piece of history gone," she said.

The organization has battling for more than a year to halt the demolition of the mill buildings, and are appealing a recent court ruling to allow the owners to finish demolition.

"We have a lawsuit pending against the owners right now," Shields said. "We have covenants on those buildings that they were never to come down."

She said she believes the fire was set deliberately and is bitterly certain there has been collusion between the city and the owners to bring the buildings down - lawsuits or not.

"There will be no investigation for the arson factor," Shields said. "It will be swept under the rug. That's how it works in this city works. It's sad."

City Manager Jerry Gwaltney and Mayor Sherman Saunders were both at the fire until it was time for them to attend the City Council meeting, which Saunders opened Thursday night by saying how proud he was of the firefighters and other city workers battling the Long Mill blaze.

Gwaltney said council has been aware of his feelings about the buildings for some time, and that he has considered them dangerous.

A year ago, he spoke at a council meeting about what the city's liability would be if someone got hurt, and pointed out that graffiti and other signs showed people were getting into the buildings.

Gwaltney said at the June meeting that because of the buildings' lack of a fire suppression system, the fire department would not send firemen into the buildings if a significant blaze breaks out there.

He said Thursday that the fire was "pretty well under control" and expressed his appreciation of the firefighters' efforts.

"We do not believe, at this time, that there's any arson," he said, but added that official results would come when an investigation could be started in the morning.

Gwaltney said he felt confident that firefighters had the situation under control, but that high winds were expected later in the evening.

"They'll be going at it all night long," he said.

Sarah Arkin and Denice Thibodeau are staff writers for the Danville Register & Bee.